Discover Carl Sprinchorn at Two Maine Museums This Fall
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art and Bates College Museum of Art chronicle the life and work of under-recognized modern artist Carl Sprinchorn.
This fall, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) and Bates College Museum of Art present two Maine exhibitions exploring artist Carl Sprinchorn.
On view at the OMAA) through November 1, Carl Sprinchorn: All the World is a Painting is one of two major exhibitions devoted to an underrecognized voice in American modernism. Born in Sweden and arriving in New York in 1903 to study with Robert Henri, Carl Sprinchorn (1887–1971) developed a wide-ranging practice informed by global travel and deep artistic community. His friendships with figures such as Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Marguerite and William Zorach, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, and Florine Stettheimer placed him within the vibrant artistic networks that shaped early twentieth-century American art.
Although long associated with Maine — where he produced some of his most compelling images — Sprinchorn’s career reflects a much broader cultural and aesthetic landscape. The OMAA exhibition highlights his deft movement between working-class subjects and scenes of leisure, between intimate portraits and energetic compositions of lumberjacks, hunters, dancers, and swimmers. Together, these works illuminate the artist’s negotiations of identity as a Swedish immigrant, a gay man, and a modern painter attuned to shifting ideas of region, nation, labor, and the natural world.
Consisting of over seventy drawings, pastels, watercolors, and paintings, Carl Sprinchorn: Points of View is on view at Bates College Museum of Art through December 19. The exhibition provides an expansive view of Sprinchorn’s evolving practice from the 1900s to the 1960s, focusing on his ability to capture the action and emotion of a moment. His first prolific period of artmaking in Maine took place in Monson in the 1910s and 20s, when he produced mysterious figures and moody landscapes. Returning to Maine at the end of the 1930s, Sprinchorn portrayed rural life around Shin Pond through sweeping seasonal landscapes, striking portraits of male figures, and lively sketches of hunting and logging.
The exhibitions are accompanied by a joint catalogue Carl Sprinchorn: A Rediscovery, published by the University of Maine Press. Together, the catalogue and concurrent exhibitions place Sprinchorn on the national stage alongside his peers — where he is long overdue — bringing renewed attention to his contributions to American art and contextualizing his practice within wider discussions of modernism, queer history, environmental concern, and transnational artistic exchange.
Located in Ogunquit, Maine, OMAA is open daily 10am-5pm through November 1. Located in Lewiston, Maine, Bates College Museum of Art is open Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10am-5pm.
Learn more at bates.edu and ogunquitmuseum.org.
